PRESS RELEASE, DATED 14-12-2012

Updating Tax Officials' Knowledge of Law

What this is

PRESS RELEASE, DATED 14-12-2012 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 14 December 2012. Its subject is Updating Tax Officials' Knowledge of Law.

What it does

Sets out, in answer to a parliamentary question, how tax officials are trained and kept current. Assessing Officers are trained at induction on direct taxes at the National Academy of Direct Taxes at Nagpur and its seven regional training institutes, and on indirect taxes at the National Academy for Customs, Excise and Narcotics at Faridabad and its nine regional institutes, with refresher courses thereafter. Training is delivered through classroom lectures, interactive sessions, practical exercises, case studies, seminars, workshops, group discussions, field attachments and the Advanced Mid Career Training Programme, and compendia of case laws and best practices are published and shared with all Assessing Officers. For the customs and excise services the figures given are 502 courses and 10,758 officers in 2010-11, 594 courses and 13,675 officers in 2011-12, and 487 courses and 10,147 officers up to November 2012; for the income-tax department, apart from induction training, 205 courses and 3,813 officers in 2010-11, 214 courses and 3,381 officers in 2011-12, and 173 courses and 2,616 officers up to November 2012.

Why it was issued

It answers a question in the Lok Sabha on updating tax officials' knowledge of the law; the Minister of State for Finance replied in writing.

Who it reaches

Officers of the income-tax and the customs and excise services attending these programmes
Readers assessing the department's training effort

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

Updating Tax Officials' Knowledge of Law
Press release, DATED 14-12-2012
The assessing officers undergo in-depth training on direct tax at the induction stage at National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur (NADT) and the seven subordinate Direct Taxes Regional Training Institutes (DTRTIs) located across the country and on indirect tax at National Academy for Customs, Excise and Narcotics, Faridabad and its nine Regional Training Institutes located at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Vadodara, Patna and Kanpur. They also undergo various refresher courses conducted by NADT and DTRTIs from time to time.
Further the assessing officers are given training on various aspects of tax laws to up-date their knowledge from time to time by organizing classroom lectures, interactive sessions, practical exercises, case studies, seminars, workshops, group discussions and field attachments and Advanced Mid Career Training Programme (AMCTP). Compendia of case laws and best practices are also published and shared with all assessing officers.
The number of training courses conducted and officers trained in these training courses for Central Excise and Customs services during past three years is as follows:

Year
No. of courses conducted
No. of officers trained

2010-11
502
10758

2011-12
594
13675

2012-13 (upto Nov. 2012)
487
10147

Apart from the induction training for Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officers, the details of training programmes for Income Tax Department is as below:

Year
No. of courses conducted
No. of officers trained

2010-11
205
3813

2011-12
214
3381

2012-13 (upto Nov. 2012)
173
2616

This was stated by the Minister of State for Finance, Shri S.S. Palanimanickam in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
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What to watch

It is a parliamentary reply reported as a press release; it lays down nothing and creates no right.
The two sets of figures are not comparable - the income-tax figures exclude induction training for the service, while the customs and excise figures are given without that qualification.
The last year in each table is a part year, up to November 2012.

Where you meet it

Only where the department's training arrangements of that period are being described as background.

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.